With more than 30 movies under her belt, Chloë Grace Moretz is more successful than any 18-year-old could ever dream. (Please take a moment now to remember what you were like at 18—that hair, oof.) Now, she's kicking major butt in this month's sci-fi thriller The 5th Wave—nine months of jujitsu training with Jackie Chan's stunt crew? No problem—while also finding time to drive cross-country from South Carolina to California. (Not to mention that she's recently been cast in the buzzy new remake of The Little Mermaid, NBD.) We're tired just thinking about it.

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Here, a few highlights from her interview:

On filming Carrieand obsessively reading and believing criticisms on social media: "I felt fat; I felt not pretty. I felt like I didn't really know who I was. I was so confused; I was scared. I had bad acne. I felt incredibly insecure."

On getting older: "I'm so free now. I don't know what happened, but when I turned 17, this huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. I'm so open; I have a good time; I don't worry about what people say about me. I know who I am, who I want to be, what I want to portray myself as, what I want people to think of me."

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On her parents' divorce: "[It] toughened me up a lot. It made me harder on myself. [It] was as heavy as you can get to dismantle a family, for sure. He just left, so it's like you have to fend for yourself… When you're betrayed by someone that is a bloodline, you start to beware trusting people and to protect yourself at all costs. For a long time, I did that too much. I wasn't letting people in."

On filming for Kick-Ass:"I was pure muscle at that age [12]. I was able to do like 200 pull-ups. It was nuts."

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On dating: "I don't want to date older people, because I'm 18 and older people are more serious. Then I kind of realized, I'll go on dates, why not? And that's kind of how I am right now. I'm not looking for a while. At least until I'm, like, 23."

Featured Music: YesYou–"Half of It" (ft. James O'Brien); Courtesy Audiopaxx

Read the full interview and see all the photos in the February issue of Marie Claire, on newsstands next week.